Setting Hearts On Fire!

Month: July 2013

One of the most powerful sentences in the Bible could be the shortest: “Jesus wept.” (John 11:35)

See that man hunched over by the wall. Leaning. Steadying himself. Weeping. That’s Jesus, the Savior of the World.

Not fighting. Not healing. Not preaching.

But crying.

His dear friend Lazarus just passed away and the sight of Lazarus’ two sisters grieving was too much even for the creator of the cosmos. Yes, God’s heart can be broken. God’s heart can be crushed. God’s heart can bleed. God’s heart can weep!

This episode speaks to us what the most eloquent modern-day preaching could not: God’s incomparable love.

It tells you what happens to the heart of God when you hurt. It tells you what happens to the heart of God when you suffer. It tells you what happens to the heart of God when you fall.

It tells you what happens to God. He weeps.

He feels what you feel. He aches where you ache. He pains where you bleed.

Because while He is God, He chose to be human.

To know. To feel. To understand.

So the next time you shed a tear. Inscribe this in your heart: You are not alone.

We often hear good people ask God why they are going through bad times.

We look at the righteous priest falsely accused of sexual harassment and we scratch our heads…

We wonder at the honest government official wrongly charged of being corrupt by the very people who are…

We question the case of a deeply devoted wife being maltreated by her philandering husband…

We grit our teeth at the news of innocent children sold to sex slavery by their own parents…

We sigh at the loving and deeply religious couple who never got a chance to have their own baby…

Really. Why?

I can only surmise.

When good people go through bad times and they emerge still loving God through it all, they become God’s most powerful blessings to the world.

The Gospel today says:

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.” (Matthew 5:13)

Tell me.

How can one sympathize with those who are anxious if one has never been? How can one sympathize with those in pain when one has forgotten how to be? How can one sympathize with those who walk away from their faith if one has never been tempted to do the same?

Indeed, we can only regain our “saltiness” if we are immersed once in a while in the “saltiness” of worldly troubles. But we always have a choice…

You can either allow your mountains to make you look smaller or use your mountains to take you a little higher.

Good people look at their mountains not as obstacles to make them smaller but as platforms to take them higher.

Higher in serving others…Higher in their relationship with God…Higher in their journey of faith…

So the next time you are tempted to question God why a good person like you go through bad times, try to re-phrase your question. Maybe the better question is: God, how can I make good use of this bad situation?

Yesterday late afternoon, I brought my family to UP to treat them to some good old-fashioned UP classic “fishballs” merienda. When we got there, to our surprise, we were met with a long-line of people waiting to buy fishballs. I shook my head disappointedly and said to my family, “The line is too long. Let’s come back some other time…”.

In other words, I wasn’t willing to go through the struggle of lining up in order to buy ‘fishballs’ for my children.

Good thing God isn’t like me.

Just like me, though, God knew what he wanted to give His children — not just fishballs but salvation.

Just like me, God knew it was not going to be easy.

Just like me, God knew that He will have to struggle just to get what he wants for those whom He loves.

But unlike me, God was willing to go through it all and at whatever cost — even at the cost of His very own life.

The least His children can do, in return, is not to give up on their own struggles, right?

What are you struggling with now, my friend? Fear? Insecuriy? Worry? Favorite Sin?

God went through the struggle of Calvary so that He can give you victory over sin and all its consequences. And the only way we can lose despite the victory God won for us already in our lives is if we give up on our own struggles.

Remember this: You honor God’s struggle on the cross if you don’t give up on your own struggles in life. Don’t give up on your struggles on your way to your salvation because God never gave up on His struggle for your salvation on His way to His cross! God struggled in on order to give us eternal life. We struggle as a way to accept it.

In not giving up on our own struggles today, we make His own struggle for us before truly count!

Selfishness spreads like cancer.Resentment, like leprosy, eats, not your flesh but your heart.Envy, like an eye disease, makes you blind to the blessings in your life.Lust, heats up unexpectedly, like high blood pressure.Dishonesty is a traitor like heart disease.

Yes, we are all sick. And we all need a doctor.That’s why He came for you and me. That’s why He came for all. No conditions. No hesitation. No exceptions.

No wonder He’s called “Savior”!

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” (Matthew 9:12)

People often say that if you are good, God will bless you. But does that mean that God won’t bless you if you are not? Or is it the case that God has already made the blessing available to those who follow His plan? And that in not following His plan, you miss out on His blessings by your own choice.

Let me tell you what I mean…

For instance, God has given you a mobile phone filled with many features. He gives you a personally-made manual so that you can access all these wonderful features and enjoy them. But then you insist on knowing everything about the phone. Instead of reading the manual, you tried to find out things for yourself. You dabbled with the gadget, experimented with the buttons, and tested its capacity. Sure, you might end up discovering its features, but you can also miss out on some. Worse, you might actually destroy it.

But if you follow God’s instructions, you end up enjoying all the wonderful features of the phone.

Question: Did God say I will give these features if you follow my instructions? Or did He not say that you will discover these wonderful built-in features if you follow my instructions?

The first is a promise of a reward. The second is a promise of a discovery.

Similarly, in life, it is often the case that God has already “built-in” his blessings in His plan for our lives. If you follow closely his commandments on how to live a righteous and holy life, the blessings will naturally come your way because they are part of the package of the life that God wants us to live. Don’t follow His plan, and perhaps you can still live a good life but not the “full life” that God intended you to live.

Is a blessing something that God rewards you with for what you do or for what you allow God to do with you?

My take is this: A blessing is always available to those who allow God to have His way with them.

The reward of a blessing is usually not something we merit but something we discover as we follow God’s prescription of a “full life” every step of the way!